ACTion News Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007
-by Justin St. Louis

Congratulations all around to the American-Canadian Tours JPN Racing/Patriote Auto #91 bunch, as their driver,
Patrick Laperle, earned his first career championship on Sunday in the Série ACT Castrol.  Having just completed
its third season (the first under the ACT banner), the Série ACT Castrol already boasts a stout list of former
champions, including outgoing king Donald Theetge and inaugural champion Sylvain Lacombe.

Lacombe held Laperle off to win the finale, the 13th Annual St-Eustache 300, at Autodrome St-Eustache just outside
Montréal on Sunday evening and draw to within 16 points for the championship, but Laperles amazing streak of
consistency (although only slightly better than Lacombes) prevailed.

Only once each during the 12-race schedule did either Laperle or Lacombe finish outside the Top 10: In the season
opener at Autodrome Montmagny, after a severe illness had kept him confined to a hospital bed for two weeks,
Laperle drove the pace lap to receive driver points and credit for starting the event.  Cousin Jacques Laperle
climbed in as a relief driver, but finished 23rd with no laps complete, the victim of a first-lap crash that
mangled the car.  Lacombe finished a dismal 28th at Capital City Speedway in Ottawa two races later.

Otherwise, both drivers were sterling throughout 2007.  In fact, both drivers finished in the Top 5 in each of the
final seven races of the year, and Laperle (a la Jean-Paul Cyr on the U.S. side of the border) finished either
first or second in the final five races.  Laperles impressive average finish for the season was 5.167, while
Lacombe turned in an equally respectable 5.750.

Laperle had previously finished second to Phil Scott on the ACT Late Model Tour in 2002, and third behind Cyr and
Brent Dragon in 2004.  Laperle was the 1998 Rookie of the Year at Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh, NY, and
finished fourth overall in that tracks championship campaign.

Speaking of freshman drivers, congratulations are in order for Éric St-Gelais, the 2007 Série ACT Castrol Rookie
of the Year.  St-Gelais outlasted an ever-improving group of rookies, holding off youngsters Jonathan Desbiens and
Kevin Roberge, along with Stéphane Durand and part-timer Spencer MacPherson for the title.  St-Gelais top
performance was a fifth-place finish at Autodrome Montmagny in June.

***

We didnt forget to mention that Patrick Laperle is a past Chittenden Milk Bowl Champion, did we?  And that the
Milk Bowl is this weekend?  Well, its all true.  Laperle says hell be making the trip from suburban Montréal to
Thunder Road in Barre, VT for the three-segment, cumulatively-scored race this Saturday and Sunday.

Voted the Outstanding Annual Short Track Event by Americas race promoters and Chris Economakis National Speed
Sport News (regarded by many as the Bible of auto racing), the Chittenden Milk Bowl is an autumn tradition in not
just Vermont, but all of New England and eastern Canada.  The winner is the driver who scores the lowest point
total after three 50-lap segments (one point to win a segment, two points for 2nd, etc.).  The finish of each
segment is inverted to start the next, and the Chittenden Milk Bowl Champion earns the right to kiss the only
beauty queen Thunder Road has a 1,600-lb Ayrshire dairy cow.

Its a wonderful, exciting race from start to finish (if we may brag a little), and the backdrop of Vermonts
early autumn foliage against the Green Mountains is nothing short of spectacular.

Booth Bros. Dairy and H.P. Hood present Qualifying Day on Saturday at 1:00pm, with ACT Late Model Tour time trials
and Triple 50 qualifiers, as well as qualifiers for Thunder Roads weekly NAPA Tiger Sportsman, Allen Lumber
Street Stock, and Power Shift Online Junkyard Warrior divisions, as well as the final championship race for the
Warriors.

Sunday gets underway at 1:00pm with the last-chance B Feature qualifier for ACT cars, followed by the
traditional pre-race ceremonies honoring past Chittenden Milk Bowl Champions and Segment I of the main event. 
Sportsman and Street Stock main events will also be run on Sunday, with each of those divisions crowing their 2007
Thunder Road Champions.

Nick Sweet of Barre, VT holds an 81-point edge over Cambridges Craig Bushey in the Sportsman class, and is almost
certainly a lock for the title, barring any major miscues.  Bunker Hodgdon of Hardwick, VT needs only to have
a not bad day to beat Wolcott driver Jamie Davis for the Warrior crown.  The race of the year, however, is
between Hinesburg, VT rookie Bobby Therrien and veteran hometown racer Lloyd Blakely.  Just a dozen points
separate the two for the Street Stock championship, with David Allen, Mike Martin, and rookie Mike Ziter not all
that far out of range.

***

Did you know?
-Winning the Chittenden Milk Bowl has contributed to no less than 16 track or series championships Lee Ingerson
of North Haverhill, NH won the 1963 Milk Bowl to help him secure the Thunder Road King of the Road crown that
year, followed the next season by Harold Hardluck Hanaford.  Other notable win/title combos include Butch
Lindleys 1977 victory, when the Milk Bowl a NASCAR Sportsman National Championship event.  Lindley won in a
borrowed ride from Maines Dick McCabe, and soon thereafter was named the National Sportsman Champion.  Five years
later, McCabe won the Milk Bowl and the NASCAR North Tour title.  Each of Robbie Crouchs four Chittenden Milk
Bowl wins led to ACT titles, and Brian Hoar grabbed a double in 1999, putting points from a Milk Bowl win toward
locking up ACT and Thunder Road championships.

-Dave Dion of Hudson, NH is the all-time leader in Milk Bowl segment victories with 12.  Dions first segment win
came in the first segment of the 1972 Milk Bowl, while his last (to date) came in round #3 of the 1997 race. 
Believe it or not, Dions longevity streak is topped at both ends by Bobby Dragon of Milton, VT.  Dragon took his
first segment win (of six) came in segment #2 in 1969, while his most recent win came in the same segment in 2001
32 years later!

-The Chittenden Milk Bowl Champion has failed to win a segment in five of the last six years.  The best
performances by segment winners since that span began in 2001 have been produced by Pete Fecteau, 2nd overall
in 01; Cooper MacRitchie, 5th overall in 02; Jean-Paul Cyr, 3rd overall in 03; Phil Scott, 4th overall in 03;
Jamie Fisher, 5th overall in 04; Patrick Laperle, 1st overall in 05; Brent Dragon, 2nd overall in 05; Joey
Polewarczyk, 3rd overall in 06; and Scott Payea, 4th overall in 06.

There will be plenty of action and updates throughout the week at www.acttour.com and
www.thunderroadspeedbowl.com, so stay tuned!